In a New York Times Magazine profile, Tennessee's Valerie June called her brand of music "an amalgamation of blues and folk and country and gospel … organic moonshine roots." Whatever the lingo used to describe it, critics have reacted to her first release—a mini odyssey through Americana—as enthusiastically as the general public did to the end of Prohibition.

"This is a shape-shifting album that's ecstatic from one song to the next. The sour twang of the opening 'Workin' Woman Blues,' with June conjuring vocals you'd hear on a crackly field recording, gives way to Appalachian folk tales ('Twined and Twisted'), joyful communal hymns ('Tennessee Time'), thunderous blues-rockers … and a celestial murder ballad ('Shotgun'). As debuts go, this is a marvel."—Boston Globe

"She writes or co-writes songs that … describe emotional isolation, financial deprivation, and an insecurity about her place in the world. She's unafraid to proclaim her neediness, perhaps because possessed of a big, powerful voice, she knows that her vulnerability isn't likely to come off as passive or self-pitying."—Ken Tucker, NPR